Automatic breadmakers for home use are becoming increasingly popular, in part because the user is able to prepare specialty and custom loaves of bread of a type not available or not readily available at commercial outlets. Another reason for the popularity of such breadmakers is that bread can be consumed when warm, i.e., immediately at the conclusion of baking. Warm, freshly baked bread has a unique aroma and texture that adds to dining pleasure.
There are a number of examples of automatic breadmakers in the patent literature. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,776,265 (Ojima); 4,836,683 (Aoyama); 4,870,896 (Asahina et al.) and 4,977,822 (Seo et al.) are but a few.
Despite the growing popularity of automatic breadmakers, their containers produce a loaf of bread which only modestly resembles the size, shape and appearance of a normal bakery loaf. For example, the breadmakers shown in the Asahina et al. and Seo et al. patents have upright rectangular "can-like" containers. Such breadmakers produce a loaf of bread which, in cross-section along a plane normal to the upright long axis of the loaf, is square or substantially so.
The breadmaker shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,605 (Takeuchi) has a pair of such can-like containers connected to one another. But whether used singly or in pairs, the appearance of the loaf is as described above.
Further, the dimensional proportions of the loaf made using, e.g., the Asahina et al., Takeuchi and Seo et al. breadmakers are unusual. Such loaves are substantially cubic. A loaf made using the Ojima or Aoyama breadmaker is cylindrical and, therefore, even more unusual--and more difficult to slice or to toast in a conventional toaster which accommodates slices from a normal bakery loaf.
And when the bread rises in the prior art breadmaker containers noted above, the raised top part of the loaf resembles a bowl-like dome rather than the longer top side of a normal bakery loaf. Since a cubic loaf is often placed on one of its four flat sides for slicing, the slice which includes the dome end has a shape quite unlike the end slice of a normal bakery loaf which is substantially flat or only slightly curved. Some prefer not to serve such a dome-shaped slice, especially to guests.
The bread produced by these prior art breadmakers has an upwardly elongate, cubic or cylindrical appearance because the prior art devices rely on a single rotary vane (as shown in the Ojima patent) or similar structure to mix the bread components and knead the dough. Use of a single vane limits the length of the horizontal axis of the bread pan because the vane must span virtually the entire bottom surface of the bread pan to adequately mix the bread components and knead the dough. The result is a loaf of bread which has an unusual shape and does not resemble a bakery loaf.
Rotary vanes for kneading the dough mix have other disadvantages. When baking is complete, the vane "imprint" in the loaf end is a small cavity (or "navel" as it is sometimes called) with a hollow passage extending from such cavity. When the loaf is laid on a side for slicing, the cavity and passage are exposed to view. A normal bakery loaf is free of such cavity and passage.
Of even greater concern to users of known breadmakers is the fact that at least the first slice from that end of the loaf in contact with the vane has a keyhole-shaped opening through it. Quite aside from aesthetic considerations, a slice of bread with a substantial opening through it would be considered by most to be unsuitable for making sandwiches.
Known automatic breadmakers lack a horizontally-configured pan and are incapable of mixing and kneading the ingredients in such a pan. An improved breadmaker having such a pan, offering features permitting proper ingredient mixing in such a pan and producing a loaf of bread having a configuration like that of a normal bakery loaf would be an important advance in the art.